We've heard speculation for some time now about how many episodes there will be in the final season of Game of Thrones – with rumours reckoning there won't be as many as previous seasons – and hot off the panels of SXSW, we now officially know the answer.

As reported over on Entertainment Weekly, showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff have confirmed that there will be just half a dozen episodes of the show in its eighth and last outing.

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"It's only going to be six episodes for the final season," Benioff explained during the featured speaker panel at the famous South by Southwest Film Festival over in the Texan capital of Austin.